Glossary
BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification. Industry-funded, and the reason a lot of horror looks shorter in Britain.
The British Board of Film Classification, founded in 1912 as the British Board of Film Censors, classifies films and video in the United Kingdom.
It is funded by the industry it regulates through submission fees, not by government. For cinema its certificates are advisory and local councils hold the actual licensing power, which is why a council can and occasionally does license a film the BBFC refused. For video its classification is a statutory requirement under the Video Recordings Act.
Current categories: U, PG, 12A, 12, 15, 18 and R18.
The Board can also reject a work outright, which means it cannot legally be supplied on video in the UK. Rejections are rare now and are mostly for sexual violence rather than gore.
Its most consistent long-standing position is that it will not pass genuine animal cruelty. That is why Cannibal Holocaust remains cut in Britain and will stay cut: the killings in it are real.
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